1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a hanger system for use in supporting a suspended or drop ceiling. More specifically, the invention concerns an apparatus adapted to engage and adjustably support a ceiling rail.
2. Reference to Related Art
Suspended or drop ceilings are found in office buildings and homes throughout the country and around the world. Such ceilings typically include a plurality of tiles that are supported by a grid of support rails. The rails are themselves supported by a plurality of hanger wires that are affixed at one end to anchors that are secured in an overhead support structure (e.g., the building frame, masonry, ceiling, etc.). An opposite end of each wire is mounted to a support rail. Specifically, the opposite end of each hanger wire is threaded through apertures in the support rail and then wrapped or twisted at least three times (by hand) back around the body of the hanger wire. This wrapping (or twisting) step is performed to ensure that the support structure (rails, wires, etc.) for the ceiling will conform to existing ICBO (now ICC—International Code Council)(see also UCB and ASTM) code standards. The wrapping of the hanger wire also allows the wire to swivel and such that it may conform to any direction that it wishes to assume. This type of prior art system is clearly shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,012,624 and 5,363,525.
An alternative to the traditional hanger system is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,979,715 and 5,364,053. In each of these references, a loop is formed on the free end of the hanger wire. An anchor, such as a flat head screw, is passed through the loop and secured to the overhead support structure. The head of the screw has a diameter that is larger than the diameter of the loop such that the head of the screw serves to support the suspended hanger wire.
In addition to the above-discussed hanger systems, the prior art also discloses a variety of fastener systems. One known type of fastener system is the T-slot fastener. This type of fastener, which typically uses a T-shaped male head portion and a slotted female portion, is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,502,192 and 4,524,495. A variation on the T-slot fastener system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,171, which discloses a hanging pot suspension system.
After a grid or network of support rails is installed, ceiling panels are placed into the grid to complete the ceiling.
The existing method of wrapping each wire back around itself is obviously labor intensive. Not only is the installer of the ceiling required to wrap the hanger wire around itself at least three times, he or she is also often required to make fine adjustments in the height of the grid after all the hanger wires are in place. Naturally, a process of wrapping and unwrapping a hanger wire (or more particularly a series of hanger wires) to make fine adjustments to the height of a grid of support rails only increases the amount of labor (and cost) involved in any ceiling installation operation.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a ceiling hanger system that not only dispenses with the need to wrap the wire back around itself, but also allows the user to quickly and accurately make fine adjustments to the system once in place.